Dreamworks: Merrill Upgrades

By Eric Savitz

Bank of America/Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen this morning raised her rating on Dreamworks Animation(DWA) to Neutral from Underperform, asserting that the risk in the stock has ebbed heading into this weekend’s release of the new animated film Megamind.

“Over the next several days, we expect DWA shares to be driven by increasingly positive sentiment towards the film,” she writes in a research note. “We believe a $42-62 million domestic opening will be needed to reach our above consensus estimate of $205 million in domestic box office for Megamind, with the higher end of our range likely as early reviews/tracking data have been positive.”

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Tech Trader Daily is a blog on technology investing written by Barron’s veteran Tiernan Ray. The blog provides news, analysis and original reporting on events important to investors in software, hardware, the Internet, telecommunications and related fields. Comments and tips can be sent to: techtraderdaily@barrons.com.